


Like Home

by hauntedpanels



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, One Shot, Post-Canon, Post-Portal 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27708041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedpanels/pseuds/hauntedpanels
Summary: Sometimes she wondered if GLaDOS created them that way, for that very reason -- so Chell wouldn’t feel alone if, on some whim, she came back.Chell learns the ins and outs of parenting ATLAS and P-body while navigating her feelings about GLaDOS.
Relationships: Chell/GLaDOS
Comments: 4
Kudos: 85





	Like Home

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on a bigger story but it's been a while since I've posted so here's a little project I abandoned a while back that I decided to finish and upload. I hope you like it.

Chell wanted to say something to the two companions she was sitting with, but she knew they wouldn’t understand. It’s not like it mattered, she thought. They couldn’t speak either. She liked that about them, and sometimes she wondered if GLaDOS created them that way for that very reason -- so Chell wouldn’t feel alone if, on some whim, she came back. And she did come back, and she did feel welcome, and things did feel different. And she did make unlikely friends with ATLAS and P-Body. Or as GLaDOS adoringly -- and fittingly -- called them: Orange and Blue.

_ Pass the green one,  _ is what she wanted to say, but instead, Orange noticed her eyeing the crayon she wanted, and without further instruction, picked it up with their big metal hand and passed it over. Chell smiled and grabbed it before going back to her drawing. She quickly peeked over at Blue’s drawing, but was cut off by him covering it up and chirping sharply in a way Chell could only interpret as “wait until I’m done.”

She beamed and went back to work on her art, adjusting the way she was sitting on the hard, concrete floor. This was something she’d do often, when they weren’t testing and she wasn’t in the company of her former enemy -- play a game or have fun with her little robots. Yesterday they played soccer, but the fun was cut short after the ball flew and hit Chell in the face. She still had a gauze bandage on her nose to stabilize it, as GLaDOS was sure it had broken.

GLaDOS had berated her, too. “You break everything you touch, don’t you?” she’d said, which was only met with an eye roll. “And you sass everything you interact with as well. I’m a person too, you know. I have feelings, unfortunately, so they can be hurt, just like yours. Of course, you’d understand nothing of considering other people’s feelings.”

Chell had known, however, that the ever so slight pitch change in her voice indicated a sly joke, so all she had done was reply in an equally sarcastic and immature way. She’d stuck her tongue out at GLaDOS, but the way her nose wrinkled as she did it exacerbated the pain. GLaDOS, of course, couldn’t ever hold back from laughing at a thing like that.

It was a game they’d always play, her and GLaDOS, of pretend insults. They couldn’t mean it anymore, it couldn’t ever be genuine, because deep down, they admired each other. GLaDOS would never admit it, but Chell knew it to be true, and she felt it, too.

“It’s just that it would shock me if you really meant that,” GLaDOS had said the other day, after Chell had emphatically agreed to some bitter statement GLaDOS had made about Cave Johnson. “You didn’t know him. So if you really do hate him as much as I do, I suppose that means you trust that I’ve given an accurate report. You trust me. Which is, well, like I said: shocking.”

Chell recalled laying down on the floor beneath GLaDOS, as if getting ready for a slumber party, and shrugging in response. If she could have, she’d have said she didn’t need to know anything else. She believed GLaDOS, and she believed Caroline, and she hated Cave, and thought his facial hair was ugly anyway. But she couldn’t say that, and so all she had hoped was that GLaDOS had received the message, loud and clear.

Chell motioned for Orange to look at her drawing. It was of the companion cube. She considered drawing herself and the rest of the crew, but didn’t feel it was quite in her artistic capabilities, so she went with what she knew best.

Orange gave her a thumbs up and a chirp before going back to theirs, and Chell was eager for the others to finish so they could all excitedly show GLaDOS their work. She laughed to herself, already knowing GLaDOS would make some sarcastic remark questioning whether the three wanted it pinned to the refrigerator, to cover up the sentimental feelings.

Sentimental. That’s when it hit her. Chell didn’t want to just draw the companion cube. She wanted to draw the way the field outside Aperture looked, the day she came back. A full moon was all that illuminated the spacious field, and Chell used that little light to drag her cube back to the place along with her backpack full of things. It was a long journey due to the weight of the thing, and Chell had cursed at herself for never finding an effective way to lug it around. She couldn’t just leave it though She knew GLaDOS looked out the cameras and over the surface, and leaving it out in the open field would put it in her direct line of view. Chell had known it’d hurt her feelings. Why Chell had cared about GLaDOS of all people upon leaving, she didn’t know, but she did. And she continued feeling that way until it became too much and she had to return. She had to--

Chell’s thoughts were interrupted by Blue grabbing her by the arm and gesturing to follow him and Orange, who had already stood up, drawings in hand. She wanted to communicate that she hadn’t yet finished, but was unable to as they dragged her along.

“Orange, Blue -- I am very surprised you managed to use crayons with those bulky hands of yours. You must be very proud.”

The two of them nodded enthusiastically, and Chell leaned over to see what their drawings were. Orange had drawn their own design for a test, which Chell assumed must have made GLaDOS beam with pride on the inside. She got a closer look at Blue’s and smiled. It was a drawing of her and GLaDOS, with Chell holding both Blue and Orange’s hands.

“I’m assuming you took part in this childish activity as well,” GLaDOS remarked. Before Chell could communicate that hers wasn’t finished, GLaDOS leaned in and got a close look. “Hm. Interesting. I definitely recognize what that thing in the middle is. I don’t understand your choice in color for the scribbles in the background, but I guess we can all agree that art isn’t your strong suit. You are welcome to scan all three of those drawings and upload them into me for safekeeping. And… research purposes. Of course.”

Being the dutiful children that they were, they both grabbed the papers and ran off to another room to find the scanner. Their departure left the main chamber with an awkward, heavy silence, until GLaDOS finally spoke again.

“You’re good with them,” she said contentedly. “It surprises me how motherly you can be, considering you don’t have a template.”

Chell tried to jokingly slap the side of GLaDOS’s faceplate, but was caught off guard when GLaDOS leaned into her. Without thinking, Chell kept her hand there, tenderly holding GLaDOS’s face.

“I suppose I don’t have one either though,” GLaDOS pondered.

Chell would’ve simply nodded if she hadn’t heard a hint of sadness in her voice. Instead, she leaned forward so she was eye to eye with her companion, the yellow of GLaDOS’s eye nearly blinding her.

“You’re going to lose your vision doing things like that,” she said blankly, changing the subject as Chell had expected she would.

Chell gently kissed her optic, tempted to just fall asleep right then and there. The warmth radiating off of GLaDOS made her feel cozy. It felt like home.

“It’s nice, when it’s just me and you. Like old times.”

In perfect timing, the two were interrupted by a loud crash and an alarm going off. Chell knew without even investigating that Orange and Blue had managed to destroy something, and evidently, GLaDOS had no doubt in her mind, too.

“So,” GLaDOS began, “do you want to put them in time-out, or should I?”


End file.
